The First Don In Liberty
by Digsy
Summary: A story chartering the rise and fall of Salvatore Leone, from his birth in a Sicilian town to his death by a Yakuza sniper. Describes his rise to power in Portland and the reason why there is a rivalry with the Forreli family.
1. The Cleansing Of A Blood Soaked Land

The First Don In Liberty  
Chapter 1 - Cleansing The Souls Of A Blood Soaked Land   
  
"Mr Leone, we didn't get the cleaner. Word on the street is that he escaped to Staunton Island under Yakuza protection with Maria."  
  
Damn. Salvatore had been so confident in his plan. It pained him to have that operation set up, he'd been a good kid and had helped solve a few problems, particularly that Cartel liner producing SPANK. What a position he now lay in, a massive Triad presence in Chinatown and them bastard Forellis in his own Saint Marks. Never did he admit to failure but Salvatore could sense an end to his reign nearing.   
  
It always struck Salvatore that his stronghold over Liberty City at its peak in the late eighties was as much due to fortune as it was to his skill. His fify three years of life had led him from Sicily to America, while settled with a glass of anisette in his lounge he thought back to a hard childhood in the village of Trapani in Sicily. It was a childhood frought with loss, the loss of his elder brother and the loss of his mother. His brother Antonio was the victim of a petty feud over cattle and lost his life to the authorities, not the police but the Cosa Nostra. He still couldn't bring himself to use the word mafia, not once had he heard it in his childhood in Trapani. The discovery of his bullet riddled body in a dirty alley sent his mother into shock and left her debilitated from a stroke - she only saw two more summers. While at the age of fourteen Salvatore felt ready to avenge the deaths of his mother and brother, but he was stopped by his father. The   
grief had consumed his quest for venegance and Luca Salvatore decided to take him and his son to America, to live the dream and to cleanse their souls from the blood soaked land of Sicily. It was now sat in his   
mansion and reminiscing that Salvatore acknowledged his father's lack of Sicilian revenge but also acknowledged his wisdom, a hot-blooded quest by him back then would have led to his own death in a dirty   
alley. To the ordinary Sicilian peasant the Cosa Nostra were the law of the land and their slippery nature meant they would never be defeated in their founding land. It was with heavy hearts that both left for   
America.  
  
Liberty City was a new American city built after the prohibition, a thriving town just off the Eastern seaboard. Within twenty years and the end of the war its population exploded and developed into a city. Much like New York, Liberty was home to a mix of immigrants. Many nations, cultures and beliefs formed the city and there was a predominance of Italian-Americans. Luca and his son Salvatore were with the first Sicilians who settled in Liberty in the Saint Marks area of Portland. He remembered his first job, working as a lackey in a cardshop buried behind a grocers on Temperance Street. The job was an easy one, all he had to do was keep the liquor flowing. Them years pouring drinks gave him an untold amount of knowledge. Local kingpins of Liberty's small underworld indulged in describing their exploits to one another. While some of their deeds were truly inspired, others dumbfounded Salvatore so much that he wondered how they held any power at all. By keeping his ears open he learnt the best aspects from each of the cardshop's characters and locked their wisdom away for future use. Five years he worked there and in them five years he had come to know many of the faces of Liberty's new underworld. There were the usual nobodies who had delusions of grandeur, and there was his boss, Domenic Finucci, a disgrace of a man. He was the most powerful of the card players and held control over the whole of Temperance Street, Saint Marks sprawling high street. Finucci muscled his way into every business on Temperance Street, he terrorised shop keepers with hollow threats of violence and took a share of their pitiful takings. While he raged to his father about Finicci's actions Luca was dismissive, the man had spent half his life caught up in   
the underworld and refused to acknowledge its slow birth in Liberty. Salvatore instead turned his frustrastion to Frederico Forreli another lackey at the cardshop and a close friend of Salvatore's. Frederico was very similar to himself, although the man had no physical presence about him, Frederico had an unseen cunning and ruthless nature. He had a quiet strength within him and a strong sense of justice, both detested their boss and both were determined to have him punished.  
  
For a number of weeks Salvatore studied Finnuci. Every week the man would visit shops on Temperance Street and squeeze shopkeepers for their measly takings. He continued to make threats of violence and boasted about connections with Sicily's great mafioso who according to him were only a few cities away on business trips. The truth was Domenic Finucci was a lone operator using the power of fear to earn a living and Salvatore wouldn't stand for it.  
  
On a cold winter's day Salvatore began the short trip to the card shop on Temperance Road, if his expectations were correct Finucci would be making his weekly collection and sure enough he was stood in the bare shop of Georgio Brasi's butchers. The plan had been set and he was confident it would succeed, Finucci was a predictable person. He took a deep breath then ran into the butchers screaming, "Domenic,   
Domenic you're being robbed! It's Frederico Forreli, he's in the card shop hoarding your profits!" Sure enough an enraged Finnuci followed Salvatore to his base of operations at the grocers where both Salvatore   
and Frederico worked. Inside the back room of the grocers standing by the poker table was Frederico holding a shotgun, waiting. Finucci burst into the grocers and charged for the back door into his dealing den.   
Salvatore tuck cover behind the counter. The ageing boss forced the door open with his boot then shot after shot was fired, Domenic Finucci's body lunged back into the front of the grocers. The man's greed had been his downfall. Salvatore rose from his safety and paced to the spluttering wreck of a man. "It was your lack of respect that led to your lack of fortune." The cool smiles of the young killers was the last thing Finucci saw. 


	2. From Cardshops To Casinos

The First Don In Liberty  
Chapter 2 - From Cardshops To Casinos  
  
"You've done what?" Luca Leone exploded with anger when his son Salvatore told him of Finucci's murder. "Why do you think I brought you here? We came to here live life properly. Were the deaths of your brother and mother not enough?" His father's reaction didn't come as a total shock to him but what followed did. His father continued his tirade, "So it was you and that Forreli boy who killed Domenic, a right pair of mafioso! "You can plot your killings somewhere else! Don't come back till you earn an honest wage." Salvatore was cast onto the streets of Portland and his father cut off all ties with him. He wasn't angry at his father but puzzled by his lack of Sicilian spirit. Salvatore moved into Finnuci's cardshop and it was to become his base   
of operations.  
  
Within months both Salvatore and Frederico Forreli had set up three cardshops in the Portland district. Frederico's brother Santino Forelli or Sonny as he was known worked at the docks and helped the pair in   
finding fellow associates to expand the business. While he treated Frederico like his brother, there was something about Sonny he didn't trust. He thought the man as being too arrogant, no respect. The first time he met Sonny was at Marcos Bistro, he sat at a table with another man, arrogance had risen off him like heat. "Hey Sal how you doin! My brother Fredo told me about you, I've got some big plans to throw your   
way. First of all let me introduce you to Tony Cipriani, he's my business partner." Throughout that first meeting all Salvatore remembered was Tony's overwhelming sense of ruthlessness and Sonny's brash ideas. Although the cardshops were making a tidy profit in Portland, they all agreed it wasn't enough and that they   
had a prime opportunity to expand. It was Tony who came forward to Salvatore and Frederico about establishing regimes, within another month both Tony and Sonny had at least thirty men beneath them.   
Between them they controlled the districts of Portland while Frederico and himself controlled the business from the ever expanding office on Temperance Street. Salvatore and Frederico had become the youngest crimelords in Liberty City and the most powerful in Portland.  
  
In Salvatore and Frederico's first year Portland was brimming with gambling businesses. The hoods gave them muscle and kept pressure on rival organisations, particularly the Triads who were new in Liberty. It was while business was ticking over nicely that Salvatore decided to take a short trip to his hometown Trapani. He missed the place and wanted to re-establish his roots with Sicily. Before he left Sonny asked to meet with him, it was about drugs. The narcotics business had exploded in America and had eventually worked its way to Liberty City. Salvatore hated them, he refused to deal in them and had repeatedly told the others it was never a possibility. They all agreed except Sonny who kept pressing and pressing, this was another of these presses. "No Sonny! I've told you, we're not touching that filth and I never expect it to be dealt in this business." The meeting ended abruptly with Sonny flaring up into a temper, Salvatore was   
slowly losing patience with Frederico's brother but decided to leave matters till his return.  
  
A month later Salvatore returned home with a wife, Connie. Theirs had been a whirlwind romance and were settling to married life. He also returned to find his organisation in chaos. When he left Sonny took the   
chance to give himself more power, he had already controlled the properties in the Red Light District and began using his hoods to unleash a wave of fear over Liberty's citizens. It was Tony who told Salvatore the details of Sonny's brutality: an eldery furniture maker and his wife were found with their throats slashed hanging in   
their shop window; three Sonny's hoods were gunned in a back alley for speaking against him; a tobacco store was bombed along with the shopkeeper, three customers and a two year old boy who was with his father. The senseless violence enraged Salvatore, he had Sonny and Frederico called to his office at cardshop on Temperance Street. It was Frederico who entered first, his face weary, weary from trying to restrain his younger brother. "I tried to stop him,   
both me and Tony but he doesn't listen. Hopefully you will straighten him out." Within minutes Sonny swaggered into the office, silence consumed the room.   
  
"In the last four weeks you have gone a rampage throughout Portland. I'm clueless as to why the murders of so many citizens was necessary." Sonny shot a defiant glare at Salvatore then went and sat casually on the boss' desk.   
  
"You see Sal, we need fear throughout this city. Fear. It gives us power. It opens doors that were locked shut before."   
  
Salvatore replied, "What doors are you referring to? We have the best business in this city, gambling is-"   
  
Sonny interrupted him, "You're behind the times, I've told you about narcotics, in the last month our profits have doubled through that white gold. The killings gave us so much power the competition ran shit scared. I waited till your absence so I could test it and it works! Better then anything else!"   
  
A cool anger rose in Salvaore, he rose from his chair and walked over to Sonny with his fists clenched. His fists smashed Sonny's face repeatedly; the man stooped to the floor claret red blood began dripping, he was gargling slightly. Salvatore regained his   
composure and sat down again, coolly he began his speech, "Sonny, you were told about narcotics. It's dirty and it's disrespectful. You went against my wishes, and against you brother's wishes in defying our orders. Not only that but you killed innocents, fellow Sicilians to establish your filthy business. I'm stripping you of your power, you'll now work for Tony. Frederico now has your regime alongside being   
my special advisor, this has already been arranged and discussed by Frederico, Tony and myself. Maybe you will learn and we can some day think about giving back what is yours."   
  
This hit Sonny hard, "You underhanded bastard! I'll remember this Leone and I will have what is mine!" An enraged Sonny catching the blood dripping from his mashed nose stormed out the office. 


	3. Decapitation

The First Don In Liberty  
Chapter 3 - Decapitation  
  
After his disciplining Sonny kept himself to himself and dutifully worked for Tony's regime. As far as Salvatore was concerned he fell into obscurity and was unusually quiet. No matter, there were more important affairs, the waterfront area of Portland had become a hive of Triad activity, there numbers slowly grew. It was Tony's job to keep the Triads under control and to shatter their trade in narcotics. This gave Tony great satisfaction as he lost his father to the Chinese some years back. Raid after raid was carried out meticulously by the Cipriani regime and the Triads were continually kept contained. Meanwhile Salvatore had Frederico's regime keep the police under surveillance, he didn't want to chance the law crushing his newly built empire.  
  
With a newborn, Joseph Leone now in the family, Salvatore saw life as great. He was the Don of Liberty City with Frederico as his right hand and Tony as his left. With the arrival of Joey, he moved the family into a new power base - the Leone mansion. A proud builing sitting at the peak of Portland in Saint Marks. Thinking back to all this Salvatore knew it was all to end and the betrayal that was to follow still shocked him to this day.  
  
Sonny sat in Momma's Restaurant waiting for his caporegime, Tony. He finished off his cigarette and stubbed it out onto the wooden decking. "Sonny! It's time to whack those Triad bastards again!" The boom in Tony's voice always startled him. "Here's the plan. I want you and a couple of men to go into Chinatown and meet a Triad informer, squeeze every drop of information that bastard has then whack him! His name's Jason Chan. Now get outta here." At the mention of this name Sonny lit up inside, he already knew Mr Chan from previous occasions.  
  
Tony remembered that mission but for all the wrong reasons. Sonny had returned all roughed up after meeting Jason Chan and had lost the other men, all had been hit. He'd finished off Chan and escaped with his life. Looking close to death Tony ordered him to lie low for a month or so to recover.   
  
Sonny Forreli felt the rage at being humiliated every day since Salvatore reprimanded him - he swore himself to revenge. Working against the Triads for Tony gave him a great opportunity to play both factions against each other. Most tasks Sonny was given required him to be alone, he would meet up with Jason Chan and act as an informer against the Mafia. In that month of his absence the Leone family suffered large amounts of casualties against the Triads, he continually primed them with information. His final mission in cooperation with the Triads would be the most damaging and would set up the decapitation of the Leones.  
  
After Salvatore's marriage and the arrival of his child, his father Luca was slowly starting to warm to him. Luca had left Liberty City for San Andreas some years ago and was returning for the first time to welcome the family into their new mansion. Salvatore had planned a lavish feast for the occasion, his father, wife and child were all at home waiting for him. He was busy inspecting a potential plot for a casino but was too distracted to work, his mind kept wandering back to his home. He left early and made his way to the feast, upon nearing the entrance home a grey kuruma stormed out of the grounds. "Follow that fucking car!" he screamed at his men in the car before jumping out and sprinting to the mansion. He dreaded what we might see, his family were in there. Christ! Panting heavily he sprinted through the garden and clambered up the steps. He looked up. The doors were wide open. Curtains flapped in the wind. Shards of glass were strewn over the floor. He folloed the glass piece by piece into the centre of the room, dreading the discovery at the end of the trail. Laying there were the slain bodies of Luca and Connie, saturated in blood and barely recognisable. His mind then raced to his son, he darted to the cot and breathed a huge sigh of relief, thankfully the killer hadn't the determination to execute a six month old baby. He lay in his cot sound asleep. Standing over Joey the man's iron determination snapped, he fell to his knees and wept.   
  
The grey kuruma easily lost the sentinels following it and took the passenger through into Staunton Island. Frederico and one of his men were sat in a sentinel just over the bridge tailing a chief who was yet to leave the police headquarters. Over the road he saw a grey kuruma screech to a halt, and out stepped Sonny who hastily entered a nearby tenement block. He noticed he was covered in blood but thought nothing of it. He was a professional killer after all. 


	4. Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

The First Don In Liberty  
Chapter 4 - Blood Runs Thicker Than Water  
  
The attack on Salvatore's home hit the entire organisation hard, everyone was astounded. Not only were two innocents killed but a score of Salvatore's top bodyguards. For the next couple of months Salvatore hid away in his home, only Tony and Frederico would visit. In their numerous private meetings they'd established two things about the hit; it was done by the Triads and by someone on the inside. Tony remembered back to the weeks before the incident and to seeing Chinese keeping surveillance of the Saint Marks area. Some of the bodyguards that were slain also showed no sign of struggle meaning they knew their killer and weren't expecting an attack. This enraged Salvatore, not only were citizens off the street becoming informers but some bastard he'd trained and nurtured had killed his family. An infamita!   
  
It was another of the Don's meetings, Tony and Frederico would have their work cut out for them, both were assigned with questioning everyone in their regime for any clues. "I want everyone on our payroll questioned, it's someone we know" Salvatore commanded. "All we know is that the bastard was in a grey kuruma and that he lost our men by the docks near Chinatown." It had took all of Frederico's effort to mask his shock at that disclosure. Sonny! He remembered spotting his brother stepping out a grey kuruma while on a stakeout on Staunton Island that very night. It all made sense, Sonny must have lost his tail by Portland bridge then sped over to the city. Frederico wasn't the only one who saw Sonny in the car though, a hood of his called Antonio was on that stakeout with him. Damn. He needed to get to Antonio before anyone else and shut him up then get to Sonny to sort this god-awful mess out! He felt himself panicking.  
  
Antonio had been with the Leones for about a year and had impressed Frederico. He rose from being his driver to being the right hand in his regime. It was his merciless manner and the swift dealing of a fellow hood-turned-informer that had impressed Frederico. He'd heard about the attack on the Don's family and it sickened him, the people targeted were innocents. He lay on his bed smoking idly, he started his patrol in a couple of hours at dusk. KNOCK...KNOCK He shot up. Who the hell could that be? Only Frederico knew where he lived. "Come on kid, I don't have all day!" the voice boomed. It was Frederico. Antonio relaxed and staggered to the door while fumbling with a cigarette, he was that busy trying to the light the thing that he never noticed the silenced pistol Frederico was pointing at him.  
  
With the money Sonny was paid for his job at the Leone mansion, he'd purchased Marcos Bistro along with his brother. It was a secret that the Don didn't yet know. It was a family thing and would be used to help him and his other Forellis. They were all flying through from neighbouring Carson City to settle in Liberty. Fredo had approached him about a month after his hit for the Triads and told him he knew it was him. Luckily his brother had covered it up by whacking a hood of his. At the time he wasn't sure how Fredo would react, he and the Don seemed to be more like brothers than they were but Fredo had simply replied, "Blood runs thicker than water." With the Don now weakened and a small foothold in the middle of his territory Sonny began planning the forming of his only family, the Forreli mafia. All it would take is a bit of persuasion and Fredo would leave the Don high and dry with just one caporegime. Sonny didn't think highly of Tony Cipriani, they'd been business partners because Tony was just muscle and he'd manage to call all the shots. With just Tony by his side the Don would be a pushover.  
  
While Sonny was plotting his mutiny, Salvatore was busy investigating. News got to him about Antonio's death, quite a loss. Frederico was in such high praise of the boy, and would tell him about his success on his operations. He also told Salavtore that Antonio was valued that greatly he'd been stationed somewhere only Frederico knew. Jesus! Salvatore began to run that idea through his mind, if only Frederico knew where he was, how the hell had he been whacked? Why had Frederico whacked his right hand man? He didn't yet know the answer and wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. 


End file.
